Friday, August 29, 2014

Love Saves the World would like to welcome Samantha Garman, who is currently on a blog tour for her book, Secrets of a Heart.

For this tour, Samantha Garman is giving away to one randomly chosen winner via Rafflecopter a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. (Enter via Rafflecopter below.) To check out the rest of the tour, click here.

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Interview --

LStW: What is the first curse word that comes to mind? How often and why do you use it?
Samantha Garman: F*ck. I’ve lived in New York 7 years. It’s my salt, and I put it on everything.

LStW: How would you spend ten thousand bucks?
Samantha Garman: Europe

LStW: What are 5 things within touching distance?
Samantha Garman: iPhone, almost empty coffee cup, birthday card from grandparents, a small little Eiffel Tour statue, a box of tissues.

LStW: Do you have a crush on anyone?
Samantha Garman: Tyrion Lannister. He makes me twitterpated. I love his one liners.

LStW: What is your least favorite word?
Samantha Garman: Moist.

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About the book --

Blurb:

London, 1815. At the age of nineteen, Blaine Whitmore loses everything dear to him in a brutal assault on his family line. Left with nothing, he finds himself aboard a merchant ship sailing far from home. Years pass as a boy becomes a man, and yet no amount of time or distance will help Blaine forget all that he has lost. After ten years sailing the high seas, he is finally ready to restore the Whitmore name.

Felicity Canton is as lovely as she is penniless, and has been left to care for her three sisters while attempting to maintain a crumbling estate. With no hope for escape from her predicament, she is resigned to a peasant’s fate. She never anticipates attracting the attention of her wealthy and mysterious new neighbor, nor does she expect him to be her savior.

As Blaine searches for truth and doles out vengeance, he becomes increasingly captivated and distracted by Felicity’s beauty and inner strength. Does he dare confide in her the secrets of his heart? Will his future be as bleak as his past, or will he finally have a chance at happiness?

Excerpt:

The sound of a snapping twig turned her attention, and the object of her thoughts stood a few feet from her, leaning against a huge tree with gnarled roots as if he had all the time in the world.

“I thought I managed to escape without anyone seeing me,” she said in lieu of formal greeting.

“I saw you leave just as my carriage was pulling into your driveway,” he explained. “Why are you here alone?”

“Mr. Fletcher is giving a grand tour of our home to strangers, in hopes that they buy it.” Her tone was acerbic.

His gaze softened, but she thrust out her chin, daring him to offer her sympathy. She changed the subject, unable to dwell on the idea that her childhood home, one that had been in the family for generations, would be sold. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”

Samantha Garman currently lives and writes in Brooklyn, NY. She loves Scotch, a great conversation with anyone willing to speak their mind and flannel pajamas. While yearning for a backyard and a dog, she's decided to stay busy working on her next book, Dandelion Dreams.

For this tour, Samantha Garman is giving away to one randomly chosen winner via Rafflecopter a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. (Enter via Rafflecopter below.) To check out the rest of the tour, click here.

There are Christians who quote the apostle Paul as their excuse for for sinning or living a sinful lifestyle. The example given is Romans 7:14-15, out of context of course, the lack of proper hermeneutics.

Romans 7:14-15 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.(NKJV)

Was Paul saying that as a Christian who had been washed in the blood of Christ that he could not resist sinning? No he was not

Romans 7:4-6 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit of God......6 But now we have been delivered from the law...(NKJV)

The apostle Paul as well as all Christians have been delivered from the law.

Romans 7:24-25 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of death? 25 I thank God ---through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. (NKJV)

Paul was not under the law after he became a Christian. He could resist sin.

Romans 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation now to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but accord to the Spiri.......4 that righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but accord to the Spirit. (NKJV)

Paul and fellow Christians walk according to the Spirit not according to the flesh. They can resist sinning.

1 Corinthians 9:27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others , I myself should become disqualified.

The apostle Paul could resist sinning.

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (NKJV)

There is no temptation a Christian cannot resist. Christians sin by their own choice.

2 Peter 2:9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgement, (NKJV)

The apostle Paul nor any Christian has to succumb to temptation.

James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (NKJV)

This was a message to Christians. Christian sin because they resist God, not because they cannot resist sinning.

Ephesians 6:11-18 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil....(NKJV)

Yes, Christian can resist the devil.

1 John 1:8-9 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us......(NKJV)

Yes, Christians do sin. Christians sin by choice, not because they cannot resist sinning.